Not While I'm Around
by schizoferb
Summary: James sings Jessie a song after a horrifying nightmare. Song from Sweeney Todd. WARNING: Rocketshipping avast! Rated to be safe.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Pokemon. The song is 'Not While I'm Around' from Sweeney Todd, which I don't own either.

**Not While I'm Around**

The night silence was broken when Jessie of Team Rocket shot up in her sleeping bag screaming. James jerked awake with a gasp. He knew Jessie, and no ordinary dream would cause her to react that way.

She was having that nightmare again.

He quickly checked to see if Meowth woke up. He didn't. _That cat can sleep through anything, thank God, _he thought. _Jessie hates for him to see her crying._ Speaking of which, he turned his attention to the still screaming woman.

"Jess…Jessie!" he cried, crawling over to her. She stopped yelling. "You've been dreaming again, haven't you?" She looked at him, silent, for a brief moment then fell sobbing into his arms.

"They're so real… so damn real…," she choked out.

"Shhhhh…," he quieted her. And then he began to sing the song he always sang to her after these episodes.

"_Nothing's gonna hurt you, not while I'm around.  
Nothing's gonna hurt you, no sir, not while I'm around…"_

Any other time, Jessie would have hit him for calling her 'sir', but now she just cried here heart out.

"_Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,  
I'll send 'em howling, I don't care, I got ways…"_

She was now quiet, snuggling into his chest. He could feel her hot breath on him and he shifted uncomfortably. He didn't tell anyone, but the real reason he left the bike gang was because he couldn't control his hormones around her. Now, as she breathed upon his shirtless body, that uncontrollability was creeping back.

"_No one's gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare,  
Other's can desert you  
Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there…"_

He remembered the first day of classes at Poketech Academy. He was sitting alone at the farthest back table. No friend of his went to Poketech. Then she walked up, also friendless, and asked, "May I sit with you?" They bonded instantly.

"_Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,  
But in time…  
Nothing can harm you,  
Not while I'm around…"_

At the start of school after break, she began to sit with the popular girls. Over the next month, he painfully watched her become one of them. The girls who'd be dating the guys who picked on him. Then one night, she met him near the courtyard for the first time since before break. There she tearfully poured out everything: her mother's death, her lack of love, how those girls pretended to be nice, how they tried to change her, how they betrayed her ._It was a night much like tonight, _he thought.

"_Not to worry, not to worry,  
I may not be smart but I ain't dumb.  
I can do it, put me to it,  
Show me something I can overcome.  
Not to worry, Mum…"_

_Stupid! Stupid! _James chastised himself. He knew he shouldn't have mentioned her mother. She was the one who haunted Jessie's dreams. Once she told him about the dream that troubled her.

It always began the same way. Jessie and her mother would be walking down a beach. Jessie would bend down to pick up a shell, then look up just in time to see her mother be swept away, screaming, by the crashing waves. Men came after, in a swirling blur of color and noise, taunting her and ripping her apart. When the room settled, she saw a cemetery. Without seeing the small sign, she knew that the people here died because of her failings. Four graves stood out among thousands: her mother's, Meowth's, his, and her own.

Then she would wake.

_  
"Being close and being clever,  
Ain't like being true.  
I would never hide a thing from you,  
Like some…"_

It seems she was raised on secrets. Her father's identity, for example. All she knew was that he worked for Team Rocket. Her first job was to figure out other's secrets so Giovanni could blackmail them. So, naturally, that was the original team pact: no secrets. But he had a secret.

He loved her.

"_No one's gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare,  
Other's can desert you  
Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there!  
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,  
But in time…"_

Jessie looked up at him, and he down at her. Their eyes met. Then the unexpected happened. Jessie craned her neck upward and her lips joined with James's. The grass swayed in the breeze. A Noctowl hooted in the distance. Time seemed to slow. It felt like getting shocked by a Pikachu, but without the pain. _Hmmm, _James thought, _Jessie smells like roses. I've never noticed that before. _He forgot everything: why they were there, who they were, how to breathe. He closed his eyes in submission to the passion.

_Nothing can harm you,  
Not while I'm around._


End file.
